The regular season for the fall 2024 cross country team wrapped up on Saturday, November 2, at Jessup University, site of the annual SFL Championships. This year, the normally rigorous league took on exponentially new meaning… adding decades-long powerhouse programs: Jesuit, St. Francis, and Davis. It is not hyperbole to say with this new super league that it is easier to win a section title than a league title (not that winning a section title is anything close to “easy”). Our first experience with this 9-school league came in September at SFL #1. The Wildcats came away with 2nd for Frosh-Soph Girls, 6th for Frosh-Soph Boys, 2nd for Varsity Girls, and 7th for Varsity Boys. Our goal each League Final is to improve on–or at least equal–our result at the September meet. We mostly met that goal, which included a team title and an individual champion.
Frosh Soph Girls
Six of the top 8 frosh soph girls teams in the section are in the SFL. This season, St. Francis has had the upper hand in this category. But after the Troubadours, it was going to be a scrum between Oak Ridge, Granite Bay, Davis, Del Oro, and Whitney. As expected, when the 2-mile race entered the first mile, St. Francis had several runners in the lead pack. But Abigail Speck and Isabel Leal were near the leaders. They crossed the line in 7th and 8th respectively, each logging their fastest time on the Jessup course. Next up was Camryn Mougeotte, who placed 25th to continue the Wildcat charge. Also finishing in the top 30 were Kylee Barrett and Gemma Scamporrino. Gemma improved on her Jessup time by nearly a full minute, and for Kylee, this was her 4th race on this course, where she has run consecutively faster each time. Zoey Rigdon was next for Whitney, who raced Jessup for the 3rd time, and like Kylee, has gotten faster each time. Nina Williams ran a terrific race to place 40th, hitting a PR as well. Ava Kruse, Teaghanne Mahaffey, and Lara de Valk came in soon thereafter, all finishing in the top 50. Lara was another runner who has raced this course four times, clocking faster times each race. Lauren McMillan, Sophia Jovanoski, and Mikayla Yanni bolstered the Wildcats’ effort. When all the scoring was complete, Whitney was 3rd in the standings, missing 2nd by just a few points. This was quite an accomplishment given that Josalyn Hinkson, one of our top runners, was not able to compete. So our many other girls stepped up and raced very well.
Frosh Soph Boys
Our Frosh Soph Boys squad was somewhat compromised as our top four freshmen and sophomores were moved up to race the league meet at the varsity level. This meant that our frosh soph line-up began at the 5th man. Ethan Speck rose to the occasion, placing 22nd in a stacked field. Fast-improving Lharsen Marquez was up to the task of 2nd man for Whitney, leading teammates Matthew Byard, Evan Leman, and Sam Dalmau to complete our top 5, all within 20 seconds of each other. It was Sam’s and Evan’s 4th time racing this course, and they both have run all four races successively faster. Rylan Whitmore, coming back from illness, performed above expectations as our 6th man. Cameron Holyoak and Koby Kobyashi crossed the line just a couple seconds later. Liam Powers, Brian Hanks, Luke Martin, and Maddock Su were the next group of Whitney runners, and all of them improved on their previous Jessup mark. One of our most improving runners is Irving Birmingham; he was next, and was another one of our athletes who has raced this course four times, having improved each time. The maroon jerseys kept coming as Michael Matthews finished right after Irving, followed by Marcus Clinciu, who ran nearly two full minutes faster than his previous outing. Two seconds later was Austin Nguyen and Ethan Stout, each improving by almost a minute. Kellen Levine-Flandrup and Wyatt Gilmer logged their fastest time like many of their teammates. Despite our four fastest frosh soph runners racing varsity, our boys still finished an impressive 5th as a team, which is one spot better than 6th at SFL #1.
Varsity Girls
A little history on our varsity girls… In 2022, the team was strong, but Granite Bay had just made the podium at the state meet a year earlier, and St. Francis was equally as dominant. Throughout that season, those two teams were top-ranked and proved it. At SFL Finals in 2022, a few young runners on our squad (sophomore Izzy Soto, and some freshmen named Jane Landon, Addi Ewers, and Sophie Hutchinson) were strengthening a rising team that nearly upset Granite Bay, who edged Whitney by a single point, 42-43. Two weeks later, Whitney shocked a lot of people, producing an individual champion (Katie Kopec) and 3 other girls in the top 10. That year, Whitney won its first ever girls section title, beating both Granite Bay and St. Francis by nearly 40 points.
With only one senior (Katie) graduating, most of the team would return for the 2023 season, so last season Whitney girls were not sneaking up on anybody. The Lady ‘Cats were ranked #1 in the section from midsummer, and held that ranking all the way to a 2nd section title and an historic 2nd place at State. Then three seniors graduated, but Whitney was once again top-ranked in the section going into 2024. Oak Ridge, which is perennially a state team in D1, unveiled a formidable roster to enter the 2024 season, beating Whitney twice in the first half of the season. Since those two early season meetings, Whitney and Oak Ridge had not faced off, but there was comparable race data with both squads competing late in the season at Woodward Park in different meets within 6 days of each other. Incredibly, the team times were nearly identical; only 6 tenths of a second separated the two teams. So Whitney had gained ground on Oak Ridge and equaled them on paper. Now, two weeks later, the SFL Championships would feature the final match-up of the 2024 season between Whitney and Oak Ridge, the top two teams in the Sac Joaquin Section.
Within a few minutes of the championship race’s start, a defined lead pack had formed. Sophie, by design, patiently strode in that pack. So did several Oak Ridge runners, including their top runner, who like Sophie would eventually emerge. By the time the race entered the midpoint, two other Whitney runners had joined the lead pack: Eva Soto and Jane Landon. This was key if Whitney was going to break up Oak Ridge. Izzy Soto and Addi Ewers were each in a chase position, tethering off the front runners. Predictably, the top 3 runners in the league (Sophie and the top runner for each Granite Bay and Oak Ridge) broke away and battled for much of the second half of the race. As the final mile progressed, it was down to two: Sophie and Granite Bay’s top runner. This was a replay of each of the previous two seasons, where in 2022 Katie Kopec beat GB’s top runner, and last year in 2023, Karissa Chamberlain dueled side by side with GB’s top runner and outlasted her. Now it was Sophie’s turn, and in the final half mile, she finally achieved separation and grew the gap onto the final 300m home stretch to win by 7 seconds in 17:31, the fastest a Whitney girl has ever run on the Jessup course. Behind her, Eva had emerged as the front runner of the chase pack and finished an impressive 18 minutes flat for 4th place overall. Jane hit a PR just 10 seconds later in 6th, ensuring Whitney had 3 runners across before Oak Ridge’s #2. Addi and Izzy each rallied in a decisive final mile to grab 14th and 17th respectively. They both beat Oak Ridge’s 5th runner. Ava Hurren and Freshman Kaylee Smith both finished in the top 25. Rae Britton, who would be a scoring varsity runner on most teams in the region, ran an impressive 20:19, with Mandy Rao hitting a personal best under 22 minutes. Addy Lee, Inessa Maldonado, Leah Smith, Marina Moreno, and Harmony Davey added to the depth of Whitney, and completed an incredible team effort to pull off the SFL League Championship Team Title, defending their 2023 SFL Title.
Varsity Boys
Last year, the front 7 for the 2023 varsity boys included 6 seniors and one junior. That junior, now senior Jackson Geiselman, has led the Wildcats throughout this 2024 season. In this newly revised league with Jesuit (#13 in the nation and #1 in CA) and Davis–not to mention Folsom, Oak Ridge, and Rocklin each having their best boys team in years–it would be tough for a rebuilding Whitney squad to rise up much in league standings. Our goal going into league competition was to aim as high as 5th. At SFL #1, our boys placed 7th, which was consistent going in, in terms of race data. Jackson, whose quad wasn’t a hundred percent, worked his way into the top 10 to finish 8th. The rest of the squad showed great improvement since the start of the season, with 6 runners breaking 17 minutes, a maroon swarm all finishing within 30 seconds of each other… Johann Gothold 34th, Davis Little 38th, surprising freshman Josh Landon 42nd, Tyler Crabtree 44th, Tyler Kubota 46th, and Maxwell Bowen 52nd. Another swarm of maroon began in the low 17’s, including young promising frosh soph runners Zachary Downing, Luka Roganovic, and Andy Jimenez-Regalado, as well as Simon Aragoza and Aaron Humphries. Yet another pack of Whitney runners crossed within a few seconds of the 18-minute barrier; the ever-improving Tyler Nordquist and Maximus Kotte each broke 18 minutes, followed closely by Nathan Olah, Keaton McDermott, and Jack Regan who was having one of his best races of the season. And keeping with the theme of pack running–a team element we love in this program!–a group of awesome seniors bolstered the Whitney effort… Connor Rekers returning from a lengthy illness, Victor Needham, much-improved Om Patel, Daniel Cho also showing terrific improvement, and Brady Quinn. Juniors Philipp Anderle, James Totaro, Jonah Nunes, and Connor Groff dealing with some cramping rounded out our large varsity squad. The team rose up to beat both Del Oro and Granite Bay (who had beaten Whitney in SFL #1), and came within 9 points of Rocklin, to place 6th, nearly meeting the team goal of 5th at league. Considering the 2024 edition of Whitney Varsity Boys has been the youngest since 2016 when 4 freshmen helped compose the front 7, the future is bright for Whitney: 4 of the 5 scorers in this year’s SFL Championship are non-seniors, and 8 of the top 12 are non-seniors, set to continue developing and return next year.
Next up is the postseason, specifically Subsections, which is a massive meet that features every team and runner in the Sac Joaquin Section (over 4000 runners and nearly 200 schools), and serves as a qualifier for only the top teams to advance to Section Championships. The Whitney Distance goal each year is to qualify a maximum 7 squads to the finals. If league finals is any indication, the Whitney Cross Country Team seems to be up for the challenge.